Saturday, May 29, 2010

Today we loaded up a bunch of games and headed out to the local university where a group of gamers holds end of the month sessions. This was a great break for me as work has kept my gaming to a minimum all week.
Justo brought Space Hulk and I brought Chain Reaction/5150 and a box full of aliens. There was way too much stuff going on, and way too many players to do a real batrep, but I thought I'd post some of the highlights as some of the pics are quite humorous. We played a couple of "bug" games as we call it.

As I was quite lazy today, I just set up my typical top secret research site table with all the fun trucks.

Predator made the scene today.

Some very well equipped corporate thugs showed up as well. They needed to retrieve some invaluable gear from the site after it went silent.

Even the Marines were present.

And of course Alien was lurking around looking for victims. These particular chaps are having a tough time with the corporate thugs who are controlled by Jil.

The Marines quickly got into a scrap with Predator and actually did quite well.

But it never pays to stop watching your back with Alien around.

Alien bolts out from cover to assault Nick's Marines.

More Aliens lurking in cover and waiting for Justo's Marines to come closer.

Nick's Marines handle the first Alien assault quite handily.

Jay's Tech-Ops fending off an Alien attack while searching the area.

Justo takes down some Aliens. You can tell this is an action shot because it is blurry :)

Jil's Tech-Ops are checking out an Alien they just killed but they better start paying attention quick as there are more Aliens about.

The first disaster strikes! Some of Justo's Marines are surprised from behind and overrun by a small horde of Aliens.

Nick's Marines are spraying and praying to keep their own Alien troubles away. You can see Justo's squad in the background trying to hold back the horde.

Many brave Marines are falling to the Alien onslaught.

Only two of Justo's Marines are left. How can they possibly stop this assault?

Nick's Marines to the rescue! With some incredible shooting, Nick has managed to tear the heart from the Alien assault.

While the Marines are fighting off the Alien attack, the Tech-Ops are back there searching for the objective.

Jay's Tech-Ops commander manages to get the helicopter airborne in hopes of evacuating. He's a pilot but does not have much rotorcraft experience.

A short while later he loses control and crashes the helicopter. Jil takes over his remaining command when he leaves for the day.

More Aliens begin to swarm out of the surrounding woods.

Jil's Tech-Ops begin to become aware of the Alien presence behind them and prepare to repulse the coming assault.

Justo's two remaining Marines manage to find the objective canister. Now to get out of here!

Fortunately Nick's squad is still full strength.

More and more Aliens start to appear from the forest. The players all start to consolidate their forces (background) in preparation to batter their way out of here.

The sneaky Aliens have gathered a large force for the attack. The Humans stoically await their fate.

The first Alien attack manages to force many Tech-Ops back. They try to duck back behind the truck but more Aliens start coming over the top. The Humans desperately try to defend themselves but it is hopeless.

The next wave of Aliens comes bolting from cover to assault the center of the Human position. The Tech-Ops commanded by Jil are going to try to stop them.

With some phenomenal shooting and hand to hand combat, Jil's lads manage to stall the Alien assault! It is truly a miracle.

The Human line of defense is holding; well, just barely. And then more bad news for the Humans as even more Aliens make the scene. The cordon is slowly closing and the Humans are in a trap.

It is really looking quite bleak at this point.

A whole lot of angry Aliens are coming their way fast.

Nick and Justo make a break for it. Jil bravely forms a rear guard while his comrades try to get away. And then more bad news. Many more Aliens make a mad dash from the forest!

Here's a better shot of Jil's thin line of defense awaiting the Alien assault.

And here's some of what is coming for them! Notice I said "some".

While Justo's and Nick's squads take off through the woods in a desperate attempt to escape, Jil has no choice but to try and shoot his way through. He manages to blow a hole in the Alien line and scatter them long enough to run into the wood also. They all make it to the APC's which brought the Tech-Ops here!
This mission was down the the wire.

Friday, May 28, 2010

After successfully repelling the probe by the scouts of some unknown alien force, the Galactic Alliance officer reports the action to headquarters. Upon informing HQ that he has secured two wounded prisoners he is told to bring up reinforcements and await an evac for the prisoners as they need to be interrogated immediately.

Upon gaining a safe position, the two scouts report in to their company HQ and convey the action and results. They also report that they think a couple of squad members may still be alive and prisoners.

Within a couple of hours an Elite squad of Terminators supported by a Mech are in route and landing on the unexplored planet near the site of the previous action. Their orders are to punish the alien force, secure the compound and anything of value, take prisoners if possible, rescue any prisoners that may be still alive and determine if they have been evacuated. If not possible to rescue the prisoners and save them from enemy interrogation, they must kill their own scout prisoners.

Their guidance computers lead the Terminators to the compound flawlessly. They immediately charge ahead in an attempt to catch the enemy by surprise. The Galactic Alliance forces have not been idle. They have been reinforced and built a laager around the compound.

The Alliance sentries are not sleeping! They immediately open fire and even manage to temporarily stun the Mech! The firefight begins.

Within moments heavy reinforcements are heading to the walls as the sentries are already starting to become overwhelmed by the quantity of fire coming from the Terminators. This is completely different from their experience earlier with the scout snipers.

Some Alliance troopers begin to fall but they manage to begin suppressing the enemy in the woods.

But that doesn't last long. The Mech makes a systems recovery and goes into action spreading death and destruction at an alarming rate. Add to that the overwhelming fire from the Terminators and things are quickly going very badly for the Alliance troops. They are pinned down and stunned all along the line by the ferocity of the assault.

To their credit, the Alliance troops bravely stand in and try to regain the initiative by returning fire convincingly, but it does seem hopeless.

The fire is simply to harsh. The Alliance pilots must give up hope of getting their TAC into the air and join the defense at the walls.

The Alliance defensive line is getting thin.

After completely suppressing the Alliance position, the Marines make an all out charge on the walls! Some Alliance troopers now decide that it is hopeless and begin to surrender. Those who do not, die.

An utterly successful mission for the Elite Marines. They have captured the compound intact, recovered Sgt. Cyrus and the wounded scout, and taken a few prisoners to boot! HQ will be very satisfied with this performance and the valuable prisoners will shed some light on the situation. These unknown aliens will not remain mysterious for long.

Monday, May 24, 2010

The beauty of THW's Chain Reaction games. A quick game in the morning before work and school.

Sgt. Cyrus is a veteran of a thousand actions. During the drop to planet ZZ723 he was thinking about how raw the recruits were getting. The countless wars and expansions are taking a toll on the Empires forces. Never mind, let the new boys have a taste. Those that survive will be strong. Today he leads his green scout squad on another planet exploration and scouting mission to study the resources that the planet might provide. They debark in a mixed wooded and grassland portion of the planet. Right away Sgt. Cyrus is impressed with the potential of this rock. It will be a very valuable addition to the Empire. Now to see who might be here.

His well trained scouts quickly move through the woods. His squad is equipped mainly with sniper rifles for long range observation today. Of course they have a launcher for heavy support also.. just in case.

As they approach the edge of the forest they see buildings ahead in the distance. Then they can make out a launch pad with some sort of flyer on the pad. A quick check of the database reveals that this flyer is unkown to the empire.

There are sentries posted around the compound.

A couple of the guards notice Sgt. Cyrus appearing at the woods edge and they open fire with some sort of energy blasters. Wielding a sniper rifle he is outgunned and must duck back.

The rest of the scouts open fire with their sniper rifles and take down one of the sentries. The rest of the surprised sentries head for cover.

Some duck back while some are shaken and hunker down.

The pilots are pinned down as well.

A direct hit from the launcher takes out one of the buildings.

With all the shooting, more of these unidentified troops come barreling out of the remaining building. The scouts open fire taking one down.

More prepared now, the alien troops start to fight back and take down a scout! Their higher rate of fire is keeping the single shot armed scouts to a minimum of effectiveness as they are outgunned.

An enemy trooper firing from the concealment of the smoke from the devastated building.

The scouts are severely outgunned in their rate of fire and are having a devil of a time returning fire. Sgt. Cyrus is beginning to understand that he has made a bad mistake for the first time in ages.

The enemy officer starts leading his section toward the pad to rally his troops. All the while they are laying down heavy covering fire.

The scout rocket launcher goes back into action and takes out a couple more of the troopers.

Sgt. Cyrus is pinned and isolated from his squad and receives a hail of fire each time he pokes his head up. This is another mistake he made today. What was he thinking?

Now two scouts are down. One is OD, the other is OOF.

Sgt. Cyrus is stunned!

The enemy officer has not been idle. He made it to the launch pad and rallied his troops who are now laying down such heavy fire that the scouts are unable to match.

The scouts are hopelessly pinned. This is a job for marines, not scouts.

Even more enemy troopers are in action now.

There is no longer any choice. The scouts must risk it and make a break for it.

Two of the scouts make it out of the fire zone and escape.

But Sgt. Cyrus does not make it. His luck has finally run out. Well sort of, as he goes OOF and is not dead.

The scouts lost one man dead, and two wounded and now POW's against this unknown foe. Two scouts have escaped to tell their tale. I'm guessing that this set back will not go unanswered!

What Miniatures Gaming is All About:

This quote was taken from a brilliant post by John Paul on the THW yahoo group.This is exactly what this hobby is all about!

The first time a new kid comes to game:

What? There's no screen? How do you... You mean I have to face my opponent and even have to talk to them. (You got a nice house here.)Heh.... What's that? Dice? How quaint. (Sure, I'll take a Coke.) Coollittle figures. You know, I've heard about army men from movies... YOU PAINT THEM YOURSELF?! (You do a good job, I could never do that.) Nice dollhouses. Hey, can I bring my Hot Wheels?

No No Go left!I think we should run through the house. (Yea, my teacher said the same thing in my class. Who do you have?) Cool, I want to loot the body... YEA! I got a shotgun. (I'd say the scene with Shelob was the scariest.) Wow, I almost died. Thanks for saving me. Why are you laughing. No, You can't have my shotgun. I guess with that pistol aimed at my face, you are going to get that shotgun. Just watch your back. (Well, my favorite show is in an hour, but I can record it. No, I'll stay.) How come we shoot the zombies up and we always get more and Jake is beating them with a baseball bat and he gets none? (Stop throwing popcorn at me...Steve...[giggle]...Don't do it Steve... [giggle-haahaaa]) Is that a grenade? OOOHH. How did I know you werein the explosion's spread.... Do I have enough room to scoot over and pick up the shotgun from his mangled body? How many more zombies did that bring in? (You got great parents. I didn't know you could play this with them.) Awesome. I just became zombie chow!

Well, that was cool! er... do you... when do you play this again? (You guys are cool to hang around with.)Can I get one of those miniatures with a shotgun.I love shotguns! Can you paint it for me? You'll show me how to paint it? Cool!

What really happens to youth when they venture forth from Video Games andget sucked into the dark vortex of wargaming. : )

John Paul

About Me

I figured it was time to change my profile as I have completely evolved as a gamer the past couple of years. I no longer describe myself as "avid" but just plain sick. Ever since getting into skirmish gaming things in my miniatures world have been just plain awesome. Glancing through my blog you will quickly figure out that I love it all; any period, any scale, and there is no telling what you will find here from day to day. My kids and their friends like to play and even my Wife will game from time to time which is kind of the ultimate achievement for any gamer. I'm blessed with fellow gamers in the Houston area which are as fanatic as myself and our biggest problem is not when we will play, but what we will play. You can find me knocking about many miniatures related sites around the web as Veloci, Sturmflieger, or LTL Dad.